Black & White photography is in a Renaissance;
from weddings to portraiture, Black & White is selling
big time. Now with SilverOxide.com filters you can make
your best work in both Color and Black & White. I've gotten
e-mails from professional studios who say that now they are
proud to offer their clients Black and White alternatives,
because the images LOOK the way they should, the way they
would if shot on Black and White Film.

You
and Black and White.

You
started with Black and White, because it was cheap and because
it let you put your hands on the process. Along the
way you discovered the power of the media . When you shoot
in color, you photograph their clothes, but when you shoot
in Black and White, you reveal their soul.

That
was film, this is digital.

All
the experience you've acquired can still be used.
The digitally equivalent films that you know and love can
be in your digital toolbox.

What
Does Color Have to do with Black and White?

Each
B&W film responds to color in slightly different ways,
so that each color translates to different tonalities between
films. That is why the tonality of B&W images is
slightly different from film type to film type. We have
captured these responses to allow you to use all the effort
and expertise that you've developed over the years.

Whether
the image is a digital photograph or a scanned color image,
you can make better Black & White photographs
from your digital ones.

The
Filter

We
build our filters to be easy to use. Two controls and
four buttons.

We
believe that you should be able to do what you want,
quickly and without fuss. It allows you to use your
time creatively.

Install
the filter, bring up an RGB image and see immediately
what things will look like in glorious black and white.

Each
emultion comes in 16 bit + Histogram Smart Filter, 16
bit + Histogram, and some in 8 Bit Enhanced, and 8 bit
original. All the 16 bit and 8 bit Enhanced contain three
color filter switches to allow you to add filteration
to your image.

Compatibility:

Filter

Programs

Operating
Systems

Smart Filter 16 Bit
B&W With Histogram

CS3
(Windows only)

Mac
7, CS, CS2, CS3(Intel)

Elements
1, 2*, 3, 4

PSP
7, 8 * Corel Photo Paint 8,9,10

Windows
Vista,XP,2000

MAC
OSX

16 Bit B&W With
Hitogram

Photoshop
5, 6, 7, CS, CS2, CS3 (Windows)

Mac
7, CS, CS2, CS3(Intel)

Elements
1, 2*, 3, 4

PSP
7, 8 * Corel Photo Paint 8,9,10

Windows
Vista,XP,2000

MAC
OSX

8
Bit Original B&W

8Bit
Enhanced B&W

Photoshop
4, 5, 6 ,7, CS, CS2, CS3

Mac
7, CS, CS2, CS3(Intel)

Elements
1, 2, 3, 4

PSP
7, 8 Corel Photo Paint 8,9,10

Windows
Vista, XP,2000

MAC
OSX

Landscape
BW and Color 16bit+ Histogram

Photoshop
5, 6, 7, CS, CS2, CS3 (Windows )

Mac
7, CS, CS2, CS3(Intel)

Elements
1, 2*, 3, 4

PSP
7, 8 * Corel Photo Paint 8,9,10

Windows
Vista,XP,2000

MAC
OSX

SilverIR

Photoshop
6, 7, CS, CS2, CS3 (Windows)

Mac
7, CS, CS2, CS3(Intel)

Elements
1, 2, 3, 4

PSP
8

Windows
Vista,XP,2000

OSX

*
These programs only support 8 bit, but use floating
point for smoother histograms, and a larger preview
window

Photoshop
7 runs Native OSX.

What
do the Controls do?

We
have two controls.

The
gamma control allows you to enhance the shadow detail.
It's like changing the development time for your negatives.

Brightness
is like print time. Use it to make the highlights white.

How
easy is it to use?

Our filters
are easy to install and easy to use. SilverOxide®
filters render colors as Black & White film would.
Differentiating red, green and blue leads to predictable gray
tones that are based on REAL WORLD experience.

How
close to film?

Below
are examples of Adobe Photoshop® Grayscale Conversion
and SilverOxide's Tri-X of a color image. Photoshop®
converts the individual colors without any relation to the
way B&W film would actually register those colors as gray
tones. SilverOxide's Kodak® and Ilford® and Agfa®
film filter modeling is based on actual film tests.

The gray tones that result from complex colors can be significantly
different from Photoshop's Grayscale convert.

GretagMacbeth®
ColorChecker Chart, density corrected so that black is
0 and white is 255

In the beginning, when film was first devised, it had
a problem. It reacted mostly to blue light; red and
green hardly registered on the image. Manufacturers
added elements to the emulsion to make it Panchromatic, reactive
equally to the three primary colors. With each emulsion
the mix of these agents differs slightly. The result
is that T-MAX has a different color palette, if you will,
than Tri-X or Agfapan APX 100. And that's a good thing.
If your model is wearing a red, green and blue jacket, you
would want some separation of tones to show that it was different
colors.

Photoshop
and Black and White

Black
and White Grayscale convert seems to have been created for
newspaper print ranging. But certainly not based on film responses.

In
digital imaging the way color is rendered will make a big
difference on the way the final Black &White image
will appear. Flesh tones are extraordinarily complex
colors. When the photographer shoots a portrait using
a favored film, he or she knows from EXPERIENCE the way flesh
tones, colors and nuances of shading are going to be rendered.
The final vision is in mind before the shutter is tripped.

Now
with the SilverOxide filters, the photographer can see in
color and Black &White with the confidence that each will
be a see-able product.

Contact
Information:

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